War in Ukraine: priority to peace, “unwavering support” from the European Union… an update on the situation

| November 9, 2024 | News | No Comments

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Saturday, November 9, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

EU assures Ukraine of its “unwavering support” after Trump's victory

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sought on Saturday to reassure Ukraine of Europe's unwavering support amid uncertainty over Donald Trump's election victory in the United States.

The first senior EU official to visit Kiev since the US president's re-election, Josep Borrell said the aim of his visit was to reaffirm the EU's support for Ukraine, as the war with Russia has lasted nearly 1,000 days. The European Union has already provided 122 billion euros ($131 billion) in military and financial support to Ukraine and trained around 60,000 Ukrainian troops, Borrell said, adding that the number could reach 75,000 by the end of winter.

“This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely necessary for you to continue to defend yourselves against Russian aggression”, he said at a joint news conference with Ukraine’s foreign minister in kyiv. “We need faster deliveries and fewer self-imposed red lines,”, he said, reiterating his support for Ukraine’s request to allow long-range strikes on military targets in Russia.

The support of Western allies has been essential to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia. Donald Trump has criticized the scale of U.S. military and financial support for kyiv and has pledged to end the war quickly, without specifying how. President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the first leaders to congratulate Trump and said his conversations with the U.S. president-elect are expected to continue.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha expressed hope that the United States would continue to play a leading role in the push for a “just peace”, adding that teams would begin preparing for a possible future meeting between the two leaders. He gave no further details. Josep Borrell, who is due to step down next month, said EU defense ministers would meet next week to discuss continued support for Ukraine, both military and diplomatic, and would advocate for “strengthened support at this critical hour”.

Ukrainian troops are in a weak position on the front lines as Russia advances into the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces currently occupy about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Tusk to meet Macron, Starmer, Rutte to discuss Ukraine, NATO

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is planning talks in the coming days with Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the leaders of the Baltic and Nordic countries on transatlantic ties and the war in Ukraine in the run-up to Donald Trump's rise to power in Washington.

“Obviously, the new political landscape is a serious challenge for all of us, especially in the context of a possible end to the Russo-Ukrainian war that would result from an agreement, for example, between the president of Russia and the new president of the United States,”, the Polish head of government, a liberal, said on Saturday. pro-european.

“In the coming days, we will coordinate very intensively our cooperation with countries that have a very similar vision of the geopolitical and transatlantic situation and the situation in Ukraine,” he said.

Donald Tusk said that the French president and the NATO secretary general would soon visit Warsaw. He added that he planned to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Warsaw or London and also said he planned to meet with the Baltic and Nordic leaders in Stockholm.

“All this, of course, in the context of the new challenges that await our country, the entire region, the European Union and the Western community” , Donald Tusk stressed, reiterating that Europe must increasingly rely on itself to ensure its security and that Ukraine's future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians.

Priority in Ukraine is peace, not returning territory, says Trump adviser

An adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Saturday that the new administration's priority would be to bring peace to Ukraine, not to return lost territory, including Crimea.

Longtime Republican Party strategist Bryan Lanza told the BBC that the Trump administration would ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “realistic vision of peace”. “If President Zelensky comes to the negotiating table and says that we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows us that he is not serious. Crimea no longer exists,” he said. “If your priority is to get Crimea back and send American soldiers to fight for it, you are on your own.”

The priority, he said, is “peace and stopping the killings.” “What we're going to say to Ukraine is, 'What do you think is a realistic vision of peace? ? It's not a vision of victory, but a vision of peace. Let's start having an honest conversation,” he said.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 after an uprising that forced Ukraine’s pro-Russian president to flee. More than two and a half years after the invasion of Ukraine began, Russian forces control just under 20 percent of its territory. Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said that peace cannot be achieved until all Russian forces are expelled and all territories captured by Moscow, including Crimea, are returned.

His “victory plan” presented last month maintains this line and encourages Ukraine to join NATO, which Russia rejects. Ukraine has asked the United States for modern weapons and permission to use them on Russian targets, but it has never asked for American forces to be deployed on its territory.

Russian troops have failed in their attempt to advance on the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, but have overrun villages on the eastern front in recent months. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said in June that peace talks would require Ukraine to give up four regions annexed by Moscow, even though it does not have full control over them.

During the election campaign, Donald Trump said he would end the war “in one day” without saying how he would do it. Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump spoke by phone this week, a conversation that was joined by pro-Trump billionaire Elon Musk, according to media reports.

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